The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1887-04-06
Truth in RELIGION.

->-Canon Bell, in Sunday at Home
| Truth in Religion.
He who believes that God is the
author of the Bible ought to believe
that God knows his own will, and that
what he wills is right and true. Doubt
of this destroys the value of the
standard. If a sceptic denies chat
things which are equal to the same
thing are equal to one another, there is
no geometry for him; yet there are sccp-
tical Christians who admit the inspira-
ton of The Bible, but deny its authori-
ty when its precepts cross their prejudi-
ces or their philosophy.
This is the difference between the
seeker of truth in science and in revela-
ton. The former starts with fixed prin-
ciples, and compares each step of his
progress with his axiom. If theory
crosses the path of principle or fact,
the theory is exploded. He never pre-
sumes to ask if three angles of triangle
may not be greater than two right angles,
or if part of thing may not bc greater
than the whole. These are ultimate
truths, to which he yields implicit assent,
and doubling them would start suspicion
of his sanity. But Christian truth
seekers, astronomers in the moral hea-
vens, whose eyes should ever be on the
sun, and whose posture as students
ought to be on their knees, instead of
bowling before Infinite Wisdom crying,
"What is truth" invent a theory of
their own, and then with their glasses
explore the word of God for proof that
their theory is right. The Bible is the
Court of Errors for the Protestant world ;
but our schools of error in the church
refuse to acknowledge its supremacy,
and take an appeal to the laws which
God has written on the human soul, as
/ if there was one law on the stony table
of mans heart, more wise and more holy
than that of Sinai or Calvary. One Of
the greatest of American painters, Wash
ington Allston was asked by brother
artist, by what means he had succeeded
in getting light as lustrous around the
handwriting on the wall in his great and
last painting, the Feast of Belshazzar.
Allston answered, First, I laid on the
primary colors in their spectral order,
then I threw transparent coloring
over the whole, and there was light
that dazzled me-" Was it mirace2
No, it was the simple blending of the
elements of light in their order and pro-
portions, and 10, the beauty of the re-
suit. The truth of the Bible Is
light that no man may ap-
proach without reverence. Each
truth has its hue essential to the
wonder and beauty of the whole. God
is truth, and the Bible is his voice. Sub
mission to the word of God is submis-
sion to God. If in the silence of the
night, when deep sleep falleth upon
man, the Ancient of Days should stand
by us, and with the voice like the
voice of many waters should proclaim
the will of the Lord, 1t would be re-
ceived with reverence, as when the
great God came down on Siaai, in tho
midst of thunderings and lightnings
and earthquake. But his majesty is il
the letter of his written law, and he who
reads should acknowledge the mighty
Iaw-giver IN the silent thunders OF his
holy word.
It is fear that makes infdcls, fea, to
take the Bible just as it is, to read it
as it reads, t. live as it requires, and
let live as it allows. Truth opens the
Bible with reverent hands, receives the
word with an honest heart, aud walks
forward trusting and fearless. The
way may be dark just now, but it is
safe, and leads to light and glory.
This theme is for the times. Truth is
worthy of worship by men and angels.
1t has the elements of Deity within 1t,
Omnipotence and Eternity, and is
destined 10 reign on earth as it does in
heaven.
Ihave great confidence in the power
of truth. Get it fairly before the public
mind, it matters little how or in what
shape it may stand; the majesty of sim
pie Doric, or Corinthian leaves may
clothe it with beauty, or it may be naked
homely truth like rugged oak, but get
it out distinctly where the world must
see it, and it will triumph in its tracks.
The tongue of malice or madness may
hiss at the base of pyramid.
You cannot kill the truth. You may
stun it for while, yet it is not dead, il
sleepeth. You may bury it. and roll
great stone to the mouth of the sepul-
chre, and seal it and set guard over it,
and write its epitaph, and publish its
death world wide, but He who watches
his own with sleepless eye, will cry,
come forth, and it will burst the bars o
the grave and rise, to the dismay of it,
foes, and the glory of its author and fin
! isher 'God.--[Dr. Prime in Observer.
NJ. ID .,.,.,l. - I.nnrnr,o 10 tha haav.